AN: Here's my
entry into the May CBPC. I didn't use an established fairytale,
and I truly hope this story works. Let me know what you think.

"Booth should be back
tomorrow morning," Temperance Brennan said to her best friend,
Angela Montenegro as they entered the Jeffersonian after lunch.

"So how is our agent
enjoying Hawaii?"

"I didn't ask.
Besides, he isn't there for pleasure. He's working on a case."

"Doesn't mean he
didn't get leied while he was there."

"Angela!" The
anthropologist looked at her friend, not sure if she wanted to laugh
or not.

"Hey, everyone gets
at least one lei when they go there. It's part of what makes
Hawaii so relaxing," Angela laughed as they made their way into the
lab section of the Jeffersonian. They were met with a grim-faced
Cam.

"Ladies, I think
there's something you need to see." The pathologist walked away
toward the lounge, and curious, Angela and Brennan followed her.
They instantly wished they hadn't. On a large screen television
was an image of a burning building.

"What's going on,"
Brennan asked as she moved a little closer to the screen as the
reporter came on.

"Again, the blaze is
believed to have been caused by a burst gas main. The initial report
stating that the FBI building was targeted as a terrorist hit has
been laid to rest at this time. Firefighters are working to put out
the blaze as we speak, and while most of the staff have been
accounted for, several are still missing including DC's own Agent
Seeley Booth." The crew of the medico legal lab looked on in shock
as the building collapsed in on itself. Temperance sat down, unable
to pull her eyes away from the horrible images.

"Sweetie, I'm sure
he wasn't in there. We'll call him, okay? He'll answer and
you'll know he's okay." Brennan nodded, but still couldn't
speak. The image of the building collapsing played again. The
reporter was still talking, but she didn't hear anything. She
turned to face her friend, who was on her cell phone. As the amount
of time Angela was waiting lengthened, Brennan felt herself having
trouble breathing. He couldn't have been in there. Booth was her
family, he was her friend, and he couldn't be trapped in a burning
inferno. "Booth, hi, it's Angela. Please give us a call and let
us know you're doing okay. Please." The artist flicked her cell
phone shut and glanced at Temperance. The forensic anthropologist
had gone white.

"Dr. Brennan, go
home. I'm sure he'll call, but right now, you need to be out of
the lab." Cam looked at her in concern.

"No, I can't. I
need to be here."

"I'm not asking
you, I'm telling you. Go home. If we hear from Seeley, we'll
let you know. Angela, can you take her?"

"Sure. Come on
sweetie." Angela took Brennan's arm and the anthropologist
allowed herself to be led from the lounge. After one last look at
the screen, Brennan left passively behind Angela.

She was at home a short
time later, and was all by herself. There was no television, so she
couldn't watch the news. Instead, she turned on the radio,
changing the station as 'Hot Blooded' blared. Soon, she had a
news station on and sat down, listening for the updates on the
burning FBI building. Her stomach turned as she thought about what
burning could do to the human body, and she couldn't stop the
retching. She raced to the bathroom and purged the contents of her
stomach as she began to cry. If Booth was okay, he would have
answered the phone. He always did. Again, her stomach turned.
After throwing up once again, she took some deep breaths to calm
herself and began to clean herself up. She'd call Booth herself to
confirm that he was okay. If he saw her call, then he'd be sure to
pick up.

Resolutely, she stood,
went back to her living room and picked up her phone. She dialed
Booth's number and waited. No pickup. When his voicemail came on,
she felt she couldn't breathe again.

"Booth, it's me.
Please call and let me know that you've received this message."
She hung up and closed her eyes. She was not going to think the
worst. He would call her back. He would. She moved over to her
couch and sat down, waiting for the call. As her radio droned on,
she slowly slipped into troubled sleep.

Night had fallen long
before her phone rang. Temperance sat bolt upright on the couch and
scrambled to grab her phone. She looked at the caller id, but it was
a number that she didn't recognize.

"Brennan," she
answered, her voice shaky.

"Dr. Brennan, this is
Rebecca. I hope I didn't disturb you." Booth's ex sounded
distraught, her voice as wavering as Brennan's.

"No, it's okay. I
was just listening to the radio. What can I do for you?"

"It's Parker. He
keeps wanting to call his father, but I just don't know how to tell
him about what happened."

"Well, just be honest
with him. Children have a better capacity at understanding than we
realize." She rubbed her eyes, becoming more awake at each second.

"I was actually
wondering if you could help me with this."

"Why do you want me
to help?"

"I know it's
presumptuous of me, but since you've had personal experience with
loss, I was wondering if you could talk to him."

"Rebecca…"

"Please. I know how
much Seeley means to you, and it would mean so much to Parker to hear
this from someone he's so fond of." Brennan sighed. She didn't
want to do this, and Rebecca needed to stop trying to pass off the
responsibility to other people.

"Fine, I'll be over
shortly," the forensic anthropologist conceded. This would be
something that would have meant the world to Booth, and she couldn't
just disregard the little boy.

"Thank you so much
Dr. Brennan, really." Brennan flicked shut her phone and stood
slowly. She picked up her keys and purse, closing her apartment door
behind her. As she made her way to the elevator, she stopped and had
to lean against a wall. If Rebecca was going to tell Parker that
Booth had died, she must have been contacted by the FBI. She looked
up at the ceiling and smiled, a trick she'd picked up long before.
You couldn't cry and grin at the same time. Soon, with deep
breaths, she was able to control the urge to cry. It would do no
good if she lost it in front of Parker.

The trip to Rebecca's
took only a few minutes, but Brennan sat in her car for another
twenty, trying to figure out what she wanted to say to Parker. What
would she have wanted to hear? She would have wanted the truth, but
then again, she was fifteen at the time, and Parker, he was just six.
Since children did have an amazing capacity to understand, then
maybe she could be more metaphoric and he would still understand the
message. With a deep breath, she left the car and made what felt
like a long march to the front door.

Rebecca opened it
before she had a chance to knock. She must have been watching me,
Temperance thought as she looked at the distraught woman.

"Thank you again for
helping with this Dr. Brennan. I honestly don't know what to tell
him."

"Did you hear the
news from the FBI," Temperance asked as she followed Rebecca
inside.

"No. The only thing
I've heard is what they've been saying on the news. I've left
several messages with Seeley, but I haven't heard from him. It's
not like him to ignore calls." Brennan's heart swelled briefly
at the thought that he could still be alive, but if he was caught in
that burning building, she didn't want to think about what
condition he'd be in if he were to survive.

"Now I understand why
you're at a loss. Let me go see Parker, and maybe I can come up
with something." She offered Booth's ex a tight smile, and
followed her up the stairs. Each step felt like an eternity as the
little boy's room loomed closer and closer. If she told Parker
that his father was dead, but Booth came out of this alive, what
would that do to him? Would he always have false hope in the future
if something happened?

"Parker, sweetie,
there's a guest here to see you." Rebecca moved aside to allow
Temperance in the room. The little boy's face lit up when he saw
her.

"Dr. Brennan, are you
here with my daddy?" He looked past her anxiously, which made
Brennan's chest constrict. Why, oh why had she agreed to do this?

"No Parker. Your
mother asked me to come and tell you a story, so that's what I'm
going to do." Rebecca looked at her questioningly, but Temperance
only nodded, indicating that everything would be fine. With a quick
nod, the other woman left them alone in the room.

"What kind of story?
Are you going to read from a book?"

"Nope. This is a
story about a brave knight."

"He's not gonna
kiss anyone is he?"

"No, there's no
kissing, but there is a lot of sword and fist fighting. I'll bet
you like that, huh."

"Yep, that's the
best part of fairy tales."

"Okay, so how to
start this…"

"They always begin
with 'Once upon a time'."

"You're absolutely
right Parker, they do. Once upon a time, there lived a brave knight.
He was born to a barber and a troubadour…"

"What's that?"

"Someone who makes up
songs. That's the word that was used almost a thousand years ago.
When he grew up and was no longer a boy, he was sent away to learn
how to be a knight. He trained hard, day in and day out, and soon,
he was one of the king's favorites because of his bravery and
skill. But soon he discovered that he no longer wanted to serve the
king, he wanted to help out the people of the kingdom.

"There was evil in
the kingdom then, so the brave knight had to work hard to help out
the peasants there. One day, a young princess found out what he was
doing and wanted to help him out. The handsome prince didn't want
her help at first, and they fought about the needs of the people."

"That doesn't seem
very smart, to fight if you want the same thing," Parker frowned.
Brennan offered him a small smile, hoping he didn't see right
through the expression. The boy was turning out to be as perceptive
as his father.

"I know, but
sometimes people don't do the smart thing. Sometimes they fight
and get angry, but if they are good friends, like the knight and the
princess, then it doesn't matter because they'll always
apologize." From downstairs, Temperance could hear the sound of a
knock at the door. Her chest seized again. That had to be a
representative of the FBI here to be the bearer of bad news. She'd
been on many of those outings with Booth, and hated them every time.
Being told at fifteen that your loved ones were missing was hard, but
being told they'd died was entirely different. She took a breath
and moved on as she listened to the muffled cry from downstairs.

"Is that why daddy
always says that you should say you're sorry?"

"Yes, it is. If you
were angry at someone and then they disappeared, you would always
remember that you were mad at them, or that you had hurt them."

"Then I'm glad I
always say sorry." The little boy smiled at her, and she could see
that he was proud of the things that Booth taught him. She could
feel tears welling again and took a deep breath before continuing on.

"Well, the knight and
the princess became the best of friends, and were always there for
each other. One day, however, the brave knight learned that a far
away kingdom in the middle of the ocean was in trouble. He knew that
the princess and her helpers could handle anything that came up in
their home, so he decided to save the far away land.

"When he got there,
he found that an evil sorcerer had put the land under a spell. He
fought hard and finally beat the evil wizard. But in doing so, he
got trapped inside of a castle that had been set on fire."

"Did the knight get
out of the castle?" Brennan looked at Parker and thought for a
moment. Logically, Parker would share the same beliefs as his
father, which meant that the little boy probably believed in heaven.

"An angel appeared
and saved him just before the building burned to the ground. Because
the knight had done so much good before he was trapped, he was made a
prince and taken to a Kingdom in the sky to live for the rest of
time."

"But what about the
princess? Does he ever see his friend again?" Temperance had to
think about that. How would she explain that the princess didn't
believe in the kingdom in the sky, and that she would never get to
see the brave knight again? The answer came for her as someone spoke
in the doorway of the room.

"Of course he will,
bub. The brave knight would never leave the people he loves."

"Daddy!" The
little boy launched himself from bed and into his father's arms.
Booth held the little boy tightly, almost as though he never expected
to see him again. Brennan couldn't take her eyes off of her
partner. He was here, unharmed. As Booth let go of his son, he
raised his eyes to meet hers.

"Parker, I want you
to thank Dr. Brennan for telling such a great bedtime story, and now,
you need to get to sleep." He tucked in his son and smiled at the
little boy.

"Thank you for the
story Dr. Brennan."

"You're welcome
Parker." She offered him a grin of her own and swiftly followed
Booth from the room. Once the door was closed, she couldn't stop
herself. She launched herself onto him and hugged him tightly.
Booth held her just as tight, hoping not to ever let go of her.
Finally, much more in control of her emotions, she looked up at him.
"Why didn't you call? We've been so worried."

"I wanted to surprise
you by showing up early, so I didn't call. I would have if I'd
heard of the explosion, but I didn't come across a television the
entire time, and I had my phone off because I couldn't use it on
the plane."

"If you ever do that
again…"

"I won't. I'll
make sure to tell you when I leave early."

"You'd better. Now
there's just one other thing that needs to be cleared up."

"And what's that?"

"Did you mean it?"

"Mean what?"

"That you'll always
come back to the people you love?"

"Of course I did,
why?" He got his answer as she pressed her lips to his. Smiling
into the kiss, he broke it off and looked at her. "Does this mean
that the prince and princess live happily ever after?"

"I don't know about
happily," she said and pulled him in for another kiss. As long as
they had the ever after, they'd be fine.

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